Underneath the Starry Skies
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: At the park fountain, Danny silently cries out in anguish, one week of dreams tormenting his mind. Casting a coin into the waters, he asks that he finds a way to end the dreams and give him the one thing that will cease his flow of tears...Sam.


**Disclaimer:** _Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "Castle Walls" is the property of Styx and A&M Records.

* * *

Danny Fenton sat on a bench across from the fountain in the park, his eyes distant. Had there been anyone else in that area at the time, they could have told you that the child sitting there looked either lost or depressed. He was, however, anything but.

His mind set on repeat, the same image flashing through his mind again and again.

Danny sniffed slightly, his cold beginning to grow worse. Pulling a quarter out of his pocket, he murmured to himself, "If you want to snag a wishing ghost, what better place than a wishing well?" Flipping the coin into the water, his thoughts became a constant repetitive pleading for one thing.

_I wish I had the courage to tell Sam how I really feel about her._

Danny sighed. He hadn't said the wish out loud, so Desiree had not granted it. _All these months, and I still can't tell her?_ Danny wondered to himself.

The previous week, he had celebrated his fifteenth birthday, and from that night onward, the onslaught of emotions grew steadily worse, fear and anxiety burying him.

**Once, in a dream**

**Far beyond these castle walls**

Every night, he'd suffer the same dream - he'd just get to telling Sam how he truly felt about her when she'd fade into nothingness, leaving him alone in a black cloud of despair. Each time, he'd awoken to a cold room, finding himself whimpering her name, praying for her to return to him.

**Down near the bay**

**Where the moonlit water falls**

The light rippling of the fountain as the water cascaded downward became a bit of solace for him as he sat there, lost within his agony.

Getting to his feet, he edged towards the fountain, lowering himself onto the cool stone edge. Leaning over, his fingers danced over the surface of the water, watching as the ripples he created melded with those of the falling water.

**I stood alone**

**While the minstrel sang a song**

**So afraid I'd lost my soul**

Feeling the first tears of this night bite at the corners of his eyes, Danny pinched the top of his nose, fighting his emotions once more. Mentally going over the last few years, he tried to figure out when it was that Sam had become something more than just a friend in his eyes - the school dance? The fake-out make-out? Ember?

Pulling his legs up against his chest, he buried his face into the denim of his jeans, thankful that he was alone as his emotions won out against him. Crying into his pants, he mentally chided himself. _I fight ghosts on a daily basis. I protect this town from everything and everyone that would try to do it harm, and I'm afraid to tell my best friend how much I care for her? Why am I such a coward?_

**There, in the fog**

**His song kept calling me**

The trickle of the falling water and the sobs that wracked his body became one in the same, the symphony of the waterfall crashing against his inner pain.

**Leading me on**

**With its haunting melody**

The splashing water became a natural balm for his aching soul, and he wiped the tear stains from his face. Turning to look at the water, his eyes found the setting sun reflecting off of the few coins submersed in the pool.

**Deep in my heart**

**A voice kept echoing**

Something about the simple beauty of that moment stopped the world around him. Drawn by the intoxicating power of that magnificence, he felt himself drawn - mind, body and soul - into the water's soothing embrace.

**I knew I'd soon be wandering**

Memories flashed before his eyes.

The first was of him, Sam and Tucker playing in the park, their last day of freedom before the first day of kindergarten. Tucker had accidentally knocked Sam off of the monkey bars and she'd hit the wood chips rather hard. Her shorts had been no defense against her landing, a muffled scream escaping her lips as she struggled to her feet, and Danny had been at her side in an instant, helping her over to a bench.

Her landing had lodged a decent-sized splinter in the skin just below her knee, and Danny, knowing just what to do, grabbed the first-aid kit that his mother had brought with them.

Placing Sam's right hand on his shoulder, he ordered her to squeeze whenever what he was about to do hurt. Leaning over, he pinched the wound between his thumbnails, gently and slowly edging the splinter out of the wound. Amidst a little blood and a partially numb left arm, he'd managed to get the splinter out, and after he cleaned the wound with an alcohol swab, to which Sam had yelped at the unexpected sting, he'd placed a bandage over the cut.

Sam stood up long enough to determine that her leg was fine, and then proceeded to engulf Danny in a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you, Danny, I'll love you forever for this. How did you know how to make it better?"

Smiling, he answered, "Mommy showed me how when I got one stuck in my finger."

Despite the pain that the wound had initially caused, and the fact that her knee still hurt a little, Sam had spent the rest of the time at the park trying to kill Tucker.

**Far beyond these castle walls**

The next memory was about halfway through third grade. Sam had walked in that morning clad in a black tee and matching jeans, a pair of black gym shoes barely showing under the flared cuffs. Everyone in class, save for Danny, had laughed at her, and someone chided that she was about two months late for Halloween. For the first few moments, 'everyone' had even included Tucker, who, once Danny noticed, was summarily cracked across the back of the head and told to shut up.

Sam had taken it pretty bad until Danny had assured her that she had looked fine. "The dark colors really…um…make your eyes look pretty," he'd told her.

**Where the distant harbor meets the sky**

Sixth grade now.

They'd been dissecting frogs in science when Sam had run out of the classroom. After a moment, Danny finally caught onto the horrid sound of someone retching, and he excused himself and walked out into the hallway. His stomach turned when he found Sam, catching sight of her losing the previous period's lunch into a nearby trash can.

"That was so disgusting! I…" She was cut off as her stomach heaved again, the end result being bitter yellow mucus. "I am never eating…" Another retch brought nothing up. "Meat again," she finished.

"Why not?" he'd asked as he caressed her back, soothing her.

"Didn't you see how they were butchering those poor frogs? That can't be…" Another dry heave disrupted her. "That can't be that far from how they get beef and pork and chick…" She heaved once more, a few strands of acidic mucus dripping from her mouth. "Chicken. It just grosses me out, Danny."

Walking back to class, he got the hall pass for Sam, explaining what had happened to the teacher. Once she'd headed for the bathroom, he returned to the frog he was working on with Tucker, who had, in the few minutes he'd been left alone, cut and cleaned the frog with nearly expert precision, its internal organs neatly piled on one corner of the dissection tray. Catching only part of the young carnivore's muttered words, Danny heard only "I've always wanted to try frog" before his lunch was meeting Sam's at the bottom of the hallway trash can.

He had gotten himself together by the time Sam returned, waylaying her and warning her not to go back into the class.

From that day on, Danny couldn't remember seeing anything besides a salad, an energy bar and a bottle of water in Sam's lunchbox.

**Where the battle raged like hell**

A week before their eighth grade graduation.

The trio had been so nervous that, the Saturday prior to commencement, they'd planned an all-day game of tag in the park.

Tucker had ended up as It most of the time, blaming his bad game on the fact that his new glasses had kept falling off.

That said, the final round of tag found Tucker, once more, as It. In an effort to completely stump the techno-geek, Danny and Sam had taken to the trees, high enough in the boughs that their presence was effectively hidden unless Tucker knew were to look. Having been hiding for over an hour, Tucker finally called an end to the game, to which Sam called him over, she and Danny waving from their arboreal perches.

That simple motion, however, managed to throw Danny off-balance, and he corrected himself only in time to slip and have the branch he was standing on a moment ago meet him between the legs. His eyes slammed shut on impact, and he heard Tucker's sharp intake of breath from below him.

"Danny, are you alright?" Sam asked.

"Yeah…just fine," he replied, starting his descent from the tree, going a lot slower than Sam. The three fought hard to suppress their giggles, humored by the now slightly feminine pitch of Danny's voice. He'd limped home with his friends' help and found himself bedridden until Monday morning, an icepack resting just below the fly of his jeans the whole time.

Spending the following day in Danny's room, all three were in hysterics over the incident. Albeit an inappropriate comment, Tucker had piped up prior to dinner that he'd hoped Danny and Sam weren't planning on having kids.

The next two hours were filled with Sam's screams of painful acts of bodily harm and death, Tucker's shrieks of terror filling the house in counterpoint. Finally managing to pin Tucker down outside of Danny's room, Sam settled for the world's worst noogie in conjunction with the rug burn that came from her having tackled Tucker.

**And every dove had lost its will to fly**

Danny felt every muscle in his body tighten as the images of another memory flowed through his mind: Ember's concert. Sam had been trying desperately to snap him out of his love-induced stupor and stop the rocker ghost.

The end result of his stubbornness, and to some extent, the spell was that Sam had kissed Dash. No matter how fake the action had been, the heartbreak felt deathly real.

Tears found their way to his eyes once more, washed away by the water of the fountain. He loved Sam, and Ember had found a way to use that to her advantage. His hidden infatuation had nearly cost the world its freedom.

He couldn't lie and say that he didn't care, but he wondered if the incident would have been different if he'd told Sam how he felt sooner.

**Far beyond these castle walls**

Fear was taking hold again, and he could feel the cage of negative emotions wrapping around him. The question rose in his mind about what he feared, and a single word came to his mind. _Rejection._ The word burned a sorrowful gash in his chest, one that became too real as his mind returned to the here and now, and Danny found himself submerged beneath the fountain waters.

Suddenly acutely aware of where he was, Danny sat up, the water from the fountain cascading off his body as a welcome breath of air rushed into his lungs, coming back to himself fully at this point. Pulling himself to his feet, he left the realm of tangibility, the water that had dampened his clothing returning to the bowl of the fountain. Floating himself out of the shallow pool, he became fully physical only once he'd hovered over solid ground.

**Where I thought I heard Tiresias say,**

"**Life is never what it seems…**

Danny reached into his pockets, pulling out the first item that his searching fingers discovered, and he turned the small copper coin over in his hands, watching as it flashed softly in the moonlight. Steeling himself for what he was about to do, he worried the penny until it was balanced on his curled index finger, his thumb poised to knock it into the water. "I wish I had the courage and the chance to tell Sam the truth."

Flip.

Sploosh.

Nothing.

Sighing, he hung his head, finally acknowledging the futility of it all.

"Danny!" a voice called from the growing darkness of Amity's night, and Danny looked up to find Sam walking towards him.

**And every man must meet his destiny."**

As Sam got closer, she noticed the redness of his eyes, and, reaching out, she brushed the faint salt trails from his cheeks, gently caressing his face, hoping to soothe whatever pain it was that had him out here this late. Leading him to the fountain, she cupped one hand, drawing a small amount of water onto his face, washing away the evidence of his tears.

The feel of the nights' cool breeze against his dampened face was refreshing, and he cupped his own hands, bringing another splash of water to his skin, and as each droplet of water fell from his face and hair, he could feel his heart, set to speeding by Sam's touch, slow down in his chest, its beating becoming a gentle, rhythmic thudding.

Inwardly, he smiled – he knew that his wish was finally coming true. Leaning down, he dipped his hand into the water, using what moisture remained on his hand to smooth the few hairs that had fallen out of place.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, and Danny smiled at the genuine concern he heard in her voice.

Straightening up, he nodded. "I'm better now. Thanks."

Sam smiled in return and then turned to leave, only to be stopped by Danny's hand firmly latching onto her wrist.

"Sam, there's something that I need to tell you."

Turning to face him, she saw the raging fires within his blue eyes, saw the oceanic tides of emotions embroiled within him.

"Sam, I…There's been something on my mind for a while now, and I'm not exactly sure when it all happened, but it's only gotten worse over the last week. I'm starting to think that I'm losing the one thing that means the world to me."

"What's wrong with your powers now? I thought…"

"Forget about my powers, Sam. Right now, I couldn't care less about them." Slowly approaching her, his hands tentatively grasped her waist, and he drew her closer to him. "Sam, it's…it's you that I'm talking about. I've been having the same dream every night, and it's starting to scare me. Every time I try to tell you how I feel, how much I care, you disappear." Choking back a sob, he struggled to continue. "I'm just so afraid that if I don't tell you right now, I'll never have the courage to, and I'll lose you to someone else. I don't want that to happen, Sam. I'd die if it did. I'd die completely without you."

Sam blinked back tears of her own, finally understanding that the fires she saw burning behind his sapphire eyes. "You're saying…you love me?"

In response, Danny leaned down slightly, fleetingly pressing his own lips against hers. Pulling back, he was stopped as a slender hand crept over his neck, pulling him back into her. Their lips met again, and Danny felt his fears and apprehension dissolve – Sam loved him back. She was kissing _him_, and it didn't feel anything like their fake-out make-out; this time, there was desire, need and passion behind it, the press of her lips on his telling him just how strongly she returned his affection.

They stood there, time forgotten, as the trickle from the fountain rose into a triumphant roar, their every sense heightened by the storm building between them.

After what seemed to them both an eternity and a split second, they parted lips and embraced one another in a tender hug, the pale moonlight casting an ethereal glow over their bodies, bathing them in a heavenly white luminescence.

It was at that moment, as a single tear of absolute joy rolled down his cheek, that Danny knew that his world had been set right, and that, from that moment forward, there would always be at least one reason to go on.


End file.
